Beyond The Hourglass
by ayla darrow
Summary: Someone has been contacting the investigation team a lot regarding the Kira case, with a lot of valid information. Could this person be a needed team member, or maybe the real Kira?
1. Too Much Time, Too Little Space

The phone rang

The phone rang.

Once.

Twice. 

_Had the investigation team already stopped receiving phone calls? _

_Are they that close to finding him?_

A speck of doubt entered the caller's mind. She shook her head. Of course they wouldn't stop receiving phone calls; they had kept the line open for such a long time. She tucked away the fringe she had falling into her face. She stared at the display of her phone.

Five times.

"Hello?" an unsure voice answered at the other side of the telephone. The insecurity in the voice made the caller doubt that she was calling the right number. She debated silently in her mind and tried to remember the numbers she had dialed and the number she had dialed so many times before, and she tried comparing them in her mind. Maybe she mixed up one and four

"Excuse me, is there anyone there?" now the voice sounded a lot more confident, and she was certain that she now had the right number. "Yes, sorry about that," she paused for a second to look at the notebook in front of her. The newest facts that had come to her mind were written down in the notebook. She had an idea where Kira might be, and although she expected the investigation team and L to know his whereabouts, she needed a way to confirm her suspicions.

"Kira is somewhere in the Kanto region, and I suspect that he's a young male, maybe the son of a criminal," she said, adding the last two statements for fun- she didn't suspect that Kira was the son of a criminal seeing that his sense of justice seems to be more like he had been raised to believe that criminals were bad, or something similar. And the idea of Kira being a young male was just a thought she had been playing around with in her mind.

"How'd you get this information?" the voice on the other line asked, sounding a bit excited. She smiled; the person on the other line always seemed to ask that when she had a right fact among the ones she had given away. "It was just a bit of research, I know about the broadcast being only in Kanto- that was easy to find out while having family in other regions," she paused, the word 'family' pained her with memories. Thanks to Kira she now had no family, and that made her even more dedicated to finding out who Kira is.

"I'm going to find Kira, and I will bring him to justice no matter what," she hissed, not ever meaning to let the person on the other line hearing what she had been thinking. She heard a faint click on the line.

'great, he hung up.'

She thought, scolding herself for letting those words slip her mouth. Before she was able to hang up the phone, she was surprised to hear a voice. She looked at the phone in disbelief. _He didn't hang up? _ She thought, pulling the phone back up to her ear. "What did you say?" she asked, curiously.

"So you think Kira is a young male and the son of a criminal?" the unfamiliar voice asked her. The fact that she hadn't heard the voice startled her. The ones who answered the phone were usually just three guys, always the same ones. She was one to get stuck to routine.

"Who is this?" she snapped, not wanting to say anything to someone who was even the slightest bit unfamiliar. There was even a possibility that the person was Kira- and that he'd been working with the police all along. That caused her mind to work out another fact that she thought could be true about Kira.

"that is something you don't need to know," the voice replied dryly. She let a small sigh slip from her lips. She could hear a faint voice in the background, but she couldn't tell what it was saying. She looked at the timer on her phone.

3:14

three minutes and fourteen seconds. Her eyes widened. Was her call being traced? The silence in between spoken words must've been a lot longer than she had thought. "Are you tracing this call?" she asked after a few seconds. She could almost imagine the voice on the other end nodding.

"You've been calling here a lot, last time you called here was four days ago, in total you have called thirty two times, sometimes with useful information regarding the Kira case, or at least within our suspicion also, and sometimes with useless information, and all your calls have been shorter than a minutes-" before the voice on the other line got to say anything more, she hung up. She looked at the time.

4:16.

She had stayed on a little too long.

If that man had been Kira, she didn't want to take a chance of him finding her. She decided that as soon as she got her stuff together, she was moving to another hotel. She picked up the notebook in front of her, the one where she kept her Kira facts. There were many pages of facts, some which had been crossed out and a few which had circles around them. Those were facts which were wrong and facts she was skeptical of. Then there were facts which were just plainly written, the ones she believed in.

She wrote a new addition to her fact collection.

'Kira might have a figure connection to them in authority position, or might even be in on themselves. Maybe a politician, police officer or anything along those lines,'


	2. Thunder

the reason for this chapter title will be cleared up later. xD just to avoid any brain malfunctions.

i don't own any characters from death note, nor death note.

* * *

The scrawny, tired looking detective took up his spoon and placed it in his mouth, sucking on it quietly. He still had the phone in his right hand, or more like, hanging on his fingers since he didn't hold things with his palm. Members of the task force, excluding Mogi, were gathered in the same room. They all looked at him curiously.

"Ryuzaki, do you want us to go to **her** location?" Yagami asked emphasizing the word 'her', looking at the eccentric detective. Ryuzaki looked at him and put the cell phone down. He was still trying to process the woman's response to his phone call. Her bland of right and wrong hints made him think of Kira. _When I challenged Kira on the broadcast, he didn't hesitate to kill the inmate who he mistook as me; Kira likes a challenge, and likes playing. The fact that she could be Kira would make sense, dropping true facts, false facts and facts that make no sense at all._

"No, not yet," he said putting his thumb up to his lips. _45 chance. There's a lot left unexplained that is more likely._ He looked at the task force who seemed to be expecting something more from him. "You all look too suspicious, and if she is Kira- or knows Kira, then she probably would recognize you, or know that you were working for the police," he said, replying to their gazes at him.

"Is it that obvious?" Matsuda asked, looking at the other task force members and himself. He had never really thought that they looked like they were cops. They just were. Ryuzaki nodded, picking up the spoon which he had placed on the dish with a slice of cake. He gently cut it with the spoon and ate the cake slowly, trying to find something more to tell the group- and trying to find a plan to find this girl. "Watari, contact the hotel, ask about the attendant for room 313, try to get as many details as possible," he commanded, not even looking up to Watari. He stared concentrated at the floor.

Matsuda's face seemed to brighten up. The other task force members had the same expression written on their faces, just not as obvious. The expressions all said that Ryuzaki had a plan to get to the girl without scaring her away and a way to get a more clear idea of whether she was Kira or not. "Do you suspect her of being Kira?" Yagami asked, knowing that the answer would be yes. But like the other task force members, he wanted to know a number.

"Yes, but I think there are around 3 chance that she is Kira," Ryuzaki said, with a slight nod.

* * *

She hadn't taken any chances. She had taken together her notebook and her essentials and left the hotel a few minutes after the phone call ended. She even left her clothes and books behind, she wasn't going to pack because she didn't know how fast the person on the other line could be- since he had a way to track her she assumed he would have a way to get there quickly or people to send to get her.

She didn't go too far away from the hotel though; instead she had gotten a seat at the bakery right across from the hotel, and she had quietly eaten half a dozen of doughnuts and a few croissants while waiting for someone out of place to go into the hotel. But to her disappointment, no one seemed to show up.

_What was I expecting? Whether this man was L, or Kira, or both, then he'd obviously be a lot smarter than to just rush there him, or maybe even sending someone. They are smart._ She thought to herself, looking at the plate in front of her. "Miss, we're closing right now," she turned her head to the owner of the bakery. She smiled and stood up. "I thought it was open until midnight," she said, as she walked out of the store. Right before she stepped out she noticed on the clock on the wall that it was in fact midnight.

She sighed and made her way down the street- looking for the hotel she had reserved earlier that evening through the last hotel. She knew that there was a chance that the man on the phone would be able to find her there, but she was going to take that chance. _This wouldn't be exciting unless there was some chance of him catching me. Where's the fun in hiding? _She told herself.

Without paying attention, she bumped into someone and nearly fall down, but was grabbed by the wrist. "I'm sorry," she said, gaining her balance. "You should watch where you are going- you could get seriously hurt just by falling," the voice said, with a sound of dryness. She looked up and was slightly surprised by the man who had saved her from falling. He was tired looking- as if he was worn out. He had on jeans and a white shirt. He seemed to be studying her, as she was studying him.

"I will," she said. The man seemed to smile slightly. "Thank you," she said, walking past him. She could hear him mumble something. She somehow recognized his voice; it was very familiar. She kept on walking down the street- trying to remember where she had heard his voice. As she walked into the new hotel she had she decided to stop thinking about it. She was tired and she needed sleep. Whoever he was, he obviously wasn't important enough to remember.


	3. Closer Than Before

i don't own anything from death note. xD

i won't be able to update anytime soon after this. i´ll be gone on vacation for two weeks. i'll be sure to write a bunch of updates though.

including one where they finally meet, L and her. and one where you find out her name. xD r&r.

--

She looked at the phone in her hotel room. It had been tempting her to call for the past two weeks, one day, three hours and four minutes. She had been careful to not let one minute go to waste. She had spent her hours doing research on politicians in the Kanto region, mainly focusing on the ones who are trying to do some justice. She rubbed her temples.

She had been surviving on take out food. Her room was filled with boxes from pizzas and bags from the food from bakeries. She never really liked sweets, but since she started searching for Kira, she found out that coffee, sugar and energy drinks keep her mind running for quite a while and keep her from falling asleep. She looked at the notebook in front of her, she had written a lot of facts lately, and most of which she had crossed over. She was sure she had studied most of the important politicians.

What was she going to tell them if she decided to call them? _Kira is not related to a politician, maybe a judge or higher ranked police officer in my opinion, or maybe I'm wrong and he's just someone who tries to serve justice. _She shook her head. What was the point in calling them with absolutely useless information? She closed her laptop and sighed.

Maybe she could play it like she would play 'Haunted House' with her brother those years ago. Her main goal was always to be the first to figure out who the murderer was, and she would always mention some cards that she had, along with a card she didn't have. That way she'd have more of a clue to whether her guess was right. She had been trying to play it that way all along with 'L', but feeling some sense of failure.

There was nothing they had to prove her wrong. She wasn't getting anymore clues. Just more ideas. She stood up and made her way to a box with a half eaten pizza in it. She took out a slice and devoured it quickly. Then she ran her fingers over the case which had been lying untouched on the bed for the past three days.

"I've gotten so lazy," she mumbled as she opened the case and took out the violin. It had her name engraved in it. She took out the bow and began playing lightly, quietly enough to get almost unnoticed by the people in the rooms next to her.

_Violin Concerto in E (Adagio) by Bach._

Her mind seemed to slowly drift away as she played through the six and a half minute violin part. After she finished playing a new thought came to her mind while she was putting the violin back in the case. Since L-, the world's greatest detective, wasn't able to catch Kira yet, and they would, to her best guess, be playing a game of cat and mouse, it was logical that Kira was one of the smarter people in Japan.

She walked over to the phone and took a deep breath. She looked at the clock on the stand next to the phone. Two weeks, one day, three hours and sixteen minutes. She dialed the familiar number for the first time in these two weeks, one day, three hours and sixteen minutes. Would she get to talk to that man again?

_Once.  
Twice._

"You took your time in calling me back," she was surprised by the quick answer. Usually she was greeted with a hello, and usually the voice wasn't so straightforward and forceful. She shook her head. She had heard that voice before, and for some reason, her mind was looking for a face.

"Two weeks, one day, three hours and seventeen minutes," she said, looking at the clock. She could hear the man on the other end give a victorious 'hmpfh' sound. _Is there something I'm missing? I'm sure I had the right time_

"Two weeks, one day, seven hours and twenty eight minutes would be more accurate," she began calculating it in her mind. That would've meant he had talked to her around twelve am, which was about the time she left the bakery. But she hadn't seen anyone suspicious like a detective or policeman, nor did she speak to anyone on the phone. "But I didn-," she stopped as she remembered the man she had bumped into.

"What information did you want to share this time?" he asked, not bothering to ask about what she was going to say. Then it clicked. She remembered the man's voice. She was talking to the same man. This man was a part of the investigation team. "Kira isn't the son of a politician, I'm guessing he's the son of either a policeman or a judge, but my instincts are saying its policeman, higher ranked, rather than a judge," she said, trying to forget her quick pause.

"You would be a good addition to the task force," the voice said, still having the same dry tone. She bit her lip; the dryness was getting on her nerves. "If I didn't suspect you of being Kira, I would make you a part of the team," he added. She felt the rage rekindle inside of herself. How could he possibly suspect her of being Kira?

_That's right. He doesn't know me. He doesn't know that Kira ruined my life. _

"Good assumption, but I'm not Kira," she said, bitter at his words. She furiously slammed the phone back into its place. Hanging up. She went back to the violin case and got out her violin.

_I don't need to play this game anymore. I can find Kira myself. Stupid L._ She thought as she began playing.


	4. Adagio in E

here's one, finally after my vacation! the parts might seem a little short. but as soon as i write up the updates i wrote on vacation, the chapter will become longer. xD

but please do enjoy. -

* * *

Ryuzaki, also known as L, listened carefully as he could hear a violin being played in the room next to him. He could hear by the tones that the player was angry. The notes were heavy, and the playing was loud. He picked up a lollipop and stuck it into his mouth. She was childish- or at least rash, it was easy to tell by the way she had hung up and how she was playing now. He had said earlier that Kira was childish and hated to loose. Kira was also smart, and watched how he played his game.

She was smart and childish.

"Adagio in E by Mozart," Ryuzaki said, taking out the lollipop. The task force looked at him slightly surprised. He didn't bother to return their looks. Instead he got off of the chair he had been sitting on for quiet a while and he walked up to the wall where at the other side, she was. When they had talked to the check in at the hotel, they had been told that she had checked in with the name Hana Smith. He hadn't believed that it was her real name.

"We need to get closer to her," he said, now turning to look at the task force. "But I though you said we looked like policemen and she would realize who we were right away," Matsuda said, slightly confused at what Ryuzaki had just told them. "That's right, I did say that, but that was back at the other hotel, when she had been, most likely, waiting for us to come to study us, now we're in another hotel, a few weeks later," he said. He looked at Light Yagami, who had been listening to every word that he had been saying.

"Light, maybe you could go and converse with her- find a way to get to know her," he suggested, catching Light's attention. The fact that he had a new suspect didn't change the fact he also suspected Light to be Kira. Light was the least suspicious of the task force, even though- he wasn't really a part of the task force. He also had a greater plan in mind. If she really wasn't Kira, then she would, possibly, call in after getting to know Light and say that she suspected him.

"Sure," Light said, standing up. For a while he looked at Ryuzaki expectantly. Ryuzaki tried to think of what he was supposed to tell him. He didn't want his main plan to be exposed to Light. "Talk to her, try to find clues to whether she could be Kira, if possible find a way to get her out of her room so we can bug it, also, compliment how she played Adagio in E by Mozart, I think she'd appreciate that comment" he said, not happy with how he had worded the directions, they lacked more carefully planned details and the usual creativity he felt he had, and his last comment might've through that balance to even worse. Light nodded, pulling out a small smile before leaving the room.

"Bug her room? Isn't that going a bit too far?" Mogi asked. Ryuzaki didn't bother looking at him, instead he waited for Light's father to say something. "We'll be able to see through her actions whether she is actually Kira, or at least we hope so," Ryuzaki nodded slightly. People were so predictable.

* * *

She was aware of her mistakes. She managed to make some of her sharp notes come out as flat, the song was off tempo and she played harshly, ruining the moments where she was supposed to play softly, and beautifully. She wanted to calm down and play the violin beautifully, but she found it hard to concentrate. Her mind jumped from one thought to another. One idea lead to another one. But now she was almost sure of one thing.

L wasn't Kira.

At least compared to how he had talked to her. The typical behavior of Kira, if her guesses were right, was not like this at all. If he was Kira he probably would've wanted to get to her, if any of her information was right. _Or maybe… He'll find a way to get closer to me without my knowledge of it ever being obvious who he is._ Kira was obviously a criminal who wasn't worth underestimating. The world's greatest detective hasn't caught him yet, so he had some wits. She stopped playing the violin instantly and laid it down on her bed.

It wasn't particularly easy for anyone to get close to her. She stayed in her hotel room almost 24/7, leaving occasionally for a breath of fresh air of to get something that she needed from the store the hotel had in its lobby. She tried to keep full concentration while working on this case, which was hard since she was used to juggling as many assignments of any kind all the time.

She got out her notebook and wrote down a new fact.

'Kira is incredibly clever.'

It was such an obvious fact, but she needed it in there, so she wouldn't forget it. She was going to find out who Kira was, no matter what it cost. She had nothing to lose anyways. She picked up her violin and put it in its case. As soon as she closed the violin case, someone knocked on her door. She half chuckled to herself. How ironic that someone came knocking so soon after she had thought about Kira trying to get closer to her.

How typical.


	5. Intuition

**A/N:** i'm so sorry for updating so late. school has been killing me. i'm studying like. two hours a day after school, coming home at six pm, and then practicing my two instruments. not that it's an actual good excuse. but i'll try to be like. a lot better at this. i still have a plot i plan to unfold, and i hope i'll be able to head in that direction.

disclaimer: i do not own death note.  
i only own the O.C.

* * *

The person who had knocked on her door was a young man, maybe around her age- or slightly younger. As soon as she opened the door and images popped into her mind. It was the image of the man she had bumped into a few weeks ago. She quickly dismissed that image as to having any relevance. She was quick associating things together, and a lot of times she was right, but this felt a bit far fetched. Her father had always said that she had good instincts, and those instincts had been why she had gotten so far in the search for Kira. But she didn't want to rely on them, because there was always a possibility that her intuition could fail, and that could result in her not being even close to catching Kira.

"I heard you playing the violin, and have heard you playing it quite often-, you're really talented," he began by saying without so much as an introduction. He felt no need to introduce himself yet. Ryuzaki had requested that he mentioned her playing. She looked at him, crossing her arms. Her playing had been horrible a few moments ago. _No way someone would come and compliment after that type of performance, not even the best of fans would be able to._

What an obvious lie.

"Thank you," she said in a dry tone. The fact that those had been his first words directed towards her bothered her. A lot. The smiled charmingly.

"I'm sorry, I'm being rude for not introducing myself first-," he said handing out his hand. "Light Yagami,"

"Yes, you were quite rude," she said, not bothering to take his hand or introduce herself. "I admire really how you played Adagio in E, by Mozart," he said, catching her full attention. Her face brightened up slightly. That song was one of her favorite songs to play. Light watched her expression as she seemed to enjoy the compliment. He couldn't help but wonder if Ryuzaki had an actual reason to make him compliment that song- even if he didn't, it seemed like it worked a certain charm on her.

He took a look around the room since she was too distracted to notice that she had the door wide open. The mess in the room appalled him slightly. Even compared to the worst of slobs, her room was in a bad state. There were boxes from fast food and pizza spread over the room, the bed wasn't made. On the floor- close to the foot of the bed, was a laptop and stacks of paper. As soon as he realized that the paper was there, he tried to see what stood on it.

**Kira is not**

He didn't get a chance to read the sentence. "Do you have any business here other than talking about my playing?" she went right back into defense mode when she noticed him looking into her room. Following her words she closed the door a bit, only to leave her head peeking out.

"Well, I've never really noticed you going out of the room a lot, and I wanted to see if you wanted to go out for food, and maybe tell me something about yourself," he suggested. At first she withdrew slightly. It was slightly odd that this guy appeared only moments after her thoughts of Kira maybe trying to get close to her without her knowledge. But it wasn't like this guy would get to know her life story- or her name, just by having lunch with her.

"That's a really…" she paused to think. If she would finish what she was going to say, she'd come off like she was pretty rude, and truth to be told, she really needed to get out and have and actual conversation with someone who wasn't a cashier and not at the other side of a phone. _And like is just told myself- I'll be careful._

"Good idea," she forced herself to say. Maybe this guy was someone valuable to her. As in inspiration. Or maybe he had something to do with Kira. The possibilities of who he was could've been endless. All she knew was that her gut was telling her something and she needed to check it out.

* * *

Ryuzaki watched out of the peephole as Light talked to her. All he could really see was Light. But his movements seemed to tell Ryuzaki a lot about what was happening. He felt slightly relieved that Light had managed to get her out so quickly, but also slightly disappointed to the fact he was expecting her to be more cautious. He watched as she closed the hotel door.

He wasn't sure, but it seemed to him that she was still a bit upset. Maybe he was wrong about her chances of being Kira. Or maybe she had suspected him being nearby and wanted to put up an act. He had other possibilities in mind, but those two- in his opinion were more likely.

As they went further down the hallway, he went out of the room and watched as Light led her away. His eyes fixated on her for a second. She was a really beautiful girl. Even though he only saw he walking away now, his good memory allowed him to see her face lie she was still in front of him apologizing for bumping into him. "Watari, lets get this finished quickly," he said, pulling up a card key. He walked over to her room and pushed the key into its place.

When he opened the door he was greeted my untidiness and disorganization.

_It's becoming less and less likely that she's Kira._


	6. Expression

a/n: sorry for taking my time. I hope you still feel like reading.  
I was thinking about revealing her name in the next chapter. How does that sound? ^-^

--

The bakery was their chosen destination. Light had an underlying feeling that in some ways she was like Ryuzaki. Also, the bakery was in perfect distance from the hotel itself- it took ten minutes to walk there, and that distance wasn't too far, yet just enough to give some time for them to clear away before they returned back to the hotel. On the way to the bakery he had tried to converse with her, only to be brushed off with her simple answers.

Although he suspected that she liked sweet, he was surprised that she got herself six doughnuts and a croissant following with a cup of chocolate milk. Her figure seemed to suggest that she stayed in shape and watched her diet.

_She's just as surprising as Ryuzaki._

"I didn't catch your name," Ryuzaki had asked him to try to get as much information as possible. Light was well aware of the fact that Ryuzaki suspected her to be Kira, which was ridiculous since he actually knew the truth, but it was also sort of an advantage to him- since this would take Ryuzaki's mind off of him being Kira, but if he didn't make reasonable distractions Ryuzaki would get back on track soon enough.

"Isabella Forte." She replied. She was giving him an obviously fake name. She took a huge bite out of her doughnut and looked at him with a serious look plastered on her face. It was almost like she was mocking him, and challenging him to try to get closer. "So you're not from Japan originally?" he asked, trying to fish out something, maybe she wasn't actually lying, but she seemed to be like him at some degree, at least if she was lying and provoking him to keep on asking.

"Oh, I Am! I grew up in Hokkaido actually!" she said, taking a sip of her chocolate milk and finishing her second doughnut. She was calm and collected, unlike anything he could imagine. Almost like that F.B.I. agent, Naomi. But instead of being super careful not to expose that she was lying like Naomi had done, it was like a game. She'd lie- he'd listen and ask, and then she'd lie again.

"I grew up not too far from here," Light said, taking a sip of his coffee. She was half way through her croissant. "So you've lived here all your life?" she asked and he nodded. The conversation was beginning to feel a bit more relaxed, but it was also starting to slow down. Her ability to avoid conversation seemed to be impeccable, or maybe she was not that much of a talker.

"My father's job has kept us here," he said, catching her attention. "What does your father do?" she asked curiously putting down the doughnut she held. Her sudden interest got him to smile. He had a lot of charisma, so maybe she liked him. "My father is working with the police," he said trying to avoid giving away too much information. Her face brightened up. "What about your family?" he asked and right away she seemed to loose both interest and joy. "They've all left," she said.

"I need to go now," she said standing up. She put the three remaining doughnuts in a bag she had with her. "I have some important work I really need to get back to, you sort of interrupted by five minute break and it turned out to be a lot longer than I originally intended it to be- this break," she said bowing with a happy face. "Thank you for taking me out," she said, quickly making her way out.

As soon as she got out of the bakery, she began to run as fast as she could to the hotel. There was something fishy about Light, and now that she had gotten him to mention that his father worked with the police- it made sense. She hadn't gotten to the part where she would actually research that part; she was only done with the other words. Reaching the hotel she calmed down. She walked with a quick pace, but wasn't running. Instead of ten minutes, she had managed to be only four minutes on her way.

As soon as the elevator opened to let her out on her floor, she was faced with a man who looked vaguely familiar. The messy dark hair and tired looking eyes. "Excuse me," she said, running past him. She was trying to remember where she had seen him. He grabbed her wrist. Light had called him and told him about their conversation, and what he had told her. If she was as predictable as he thought, she would've be running to the computer.

"Do you think it's him?" he asked, causing her to stop struggling to get away. She turned around to look at the man. For a while she scanned him over and then she realized. He was the man she had bumped into those weeks ago. "That's why I pictured you when I saw him, you sent him to me," she said, the question she had got lost in her surprise.

"What made you think it's him?" it was as if he was reading her mind. "Get off of me, get me a chance to go call," she said, freeing her arm from his grip and she left for her room. Ryuzaki watched as she entered her room. She seemed to be heated and excited and like she had found something out.

_Why did she picture me, what was she talking about?_

She still puzzled him. But after going through her room, they only installed two cameras. Just to watch out for her. Now that Light was in the game- there was a chance he might go after her. After a while, his phone began to ring. He got it out of his pocket and looked at the number. Her hotel number. He smiled and flipped open the phone.

"I think Kira is Light Yagami, he's father works with the police, and he's one of the smartest students in all of Japan,"

_heh._

"I could tell that by looking at your face,"


	7. Salut D'amor

A/N: I'm so sorry, this chapter is really bad. /: I decided I just had to update, and I had an hour to write an update, and this is what I was able to come up with. (: Next time, I'll be sure to start EARLIER, so I'll be able to put more effort into it. And I'm finally reaching the original idea I had for 'her'. :D so exciting!

* * *

What was she to do? She had already met L, and he had some sort of connection with Light Yagami. But what connection was it? She had hung up on L right away after he had said those words. She had been standing right in front of him; he had bumped into her all those weeks ago. Were they three? Or maybe two. She couldn't stand unwanted surprises. Even though consider everything that happened, nothing was really unwanted, of course she wanted to work close to L, especially if he's also close to Kira.

She threw herself onto the floor, not wanting to throw herself onto the bed because of the chance of the violin case jumping off and falling to the floor. She let out a heavy sigh. She pictured the man who had been standing in front of her. She hadn't thought much of his looks, but now they seemed to be so important. She somehow managed to miss how obvious he had been when he bumped into her. He had apologized and warned her about something related to falling. She tried to remember his words but her thoughts popped into her head, one after another. She couldn't catch them as they came. It was frustrating.

She liked order and she liked predicting unpredictable things. But L had worked beyond predictable and unpredictable. He didn't only seem to work in the manner of surprise, he seemed like he was accustomed to it.

_I'm not making any sense. All I'm doing is thinking useless thoughts that mean nothing. I need to calm down and forget all my thoughts up until now. And I need to think of a plan._

She sat up and looked at her violin. She stood up and walked towards it and she opened the case. On the inside of the lid was her name etched. She didn't think much of it, but when she had gotten it, it was a big deal to her. She got her violin out and began playing.

_Salut D'amor by Elgar_

As she played her mind seemed to calm down. The overflowing of thoughts turned to no thoughts at all and her tense body slowly loosened up and she felt like she could finally relax. She felt at peace when she managed to finish the song without a single fault. She layed the violin back into its case. Almost as soon as she had finished that, she got a brilliant idea of how she could possibly find out if Light was Kira. But she needed to be able to work with L. She looked at the hotel pone and sighed.

_Once._

_Twice._

_Thrice._

He seemed to be taking his own time in answering the phone. Usually he answered right away. She tapped her left foot as she waited for him to answer. She was waiting to hear his voice. If she wouldn't get to him now, she feared what would happen. But the fear that would've overwhelmed her on a normal occasion wasn't strong enough to even evoke a reaction. She just stood there and waited and felt it.

"You never gave me a chance to finish what I was going to say,"

The dry voice was back. She rejoiced. His image somehow floated into her mind, his tired looking eyes and his slightly hunched figure. She shook her head. She didn't need to analyze him yet.

"Salut D'amor, Elgar," his words caught her attention once again. She was puzzled. "You played it perfectly," her face flushed slightly. He had listened to her play and he knew the song, obviously. "What is it you wanted, you called for a reason," L said, after finally getting her attention.

_Should I ask him?_

"I want to help you capture him," she said, knowing that he already knew who she suspected of being Kira. She didn't want to say his name, or his nickname. For a while there was complete silence on the other side of the phone. Then after a few seconds she could've sworn she heard a smile on the other end.

"You can help us investigate, and do what you have to," on the other side Ryuzaki sat in his odd position and smiled victoriously. "You'll be of a great help," he said. He hand an underlying feeling that she already had a plan, and according to his calculations and her predictability, her plan would most likely prove that Light was Kira. He briefly thought about her violin case, seeing that she was finally closing it after she had hung up on him.

_Your turn to prove your abilities, Nariko._


	8. Mizuki Oshiro

A/N: sorry for the terrible, very bad lack of updates. _ I'm now of christmas vacation so I actually have time to update now. :D I've been so busy preparing for my tests. /: They were horrible! Haha. Well, here's an update I've been itching to send it. ^-^ I'm getting closer to revealing my original plot. Takes me long enough, huh? ^-^

* * *

She had to initiate the plan right away. She began by ordering three boxes of pizza. She questioned in her mind whether this would actually work. Would Kira actually fall for this plan? She turned on her computer and began acting as if she was researching once again. Even though L knew that she suspected Light being Kira, she still needed to put up an act. It didn't take long for the pizza's to arrive. "Thank you," she said, paying the pizza boy in cash. "Keep the change," she said closing the door before he could possibly say anything.

She slowly began eating the pizza as she researched, in a calmer manner than she usually did. She typed slowly instead of being enthusiastic like she usually was; her fingers were feeling heavier now that she knew what she was looking for. The minutes seemed to pass a lot slower. Within an hour she was done with a whole pizza.

_I doubt I'll be able to carry out the plan if I have to continue this for more than a day._

She felt like she was going to burst, she had a tendency to eat a bit more than most women her age, but a whole box of pizza was way out of her league. Excessive eating was one way to diagnose depression, although it could just mean that she liked to eat a lot. She purposely acted as if nothing was going on when she came up with Light Yagami's father, later leading to her looking at what she could find about Light. She didn't lean in or show any particular interest, the only thing she did was scribble down Light's name, which was joining a list of five previous suspects.

* * *

For the next few days, Ryuzaki, also known as L, watched her carefully as she seemed to search through every possible database for information about anyone that would fit her criteria, but she had already told him that she suspected Light to be Kira. _What are you thinking?_ He thought to himself. He hated not knowing her plans, and he also didn't like it when he couldn't see right through it. Was she trying to make it look like she doubted that Light was Kira?

"She looks depressed," Ryuzaki turned around to see Light standing there. Of course, for some reason, he allowed everyone to be able to view what was going on in her room. "Do you really think that she'll be helpful? I mean, excessive eating, endless searching," Light said, shrugging his shoulder. Ryuzaki didn't even need to turn around to know that Light had a small, discreet grin plastered onto his face.

"We'll just see how much of a help she'll be," Ryuzaki said standing up from the screen. He scratched the back of his head and turned to Watari. "Get rid of the screen before she gets here, we don't want her to know that we're watching her," he ordered calmly, walking towards the hotel door. "Before she gets here?" Soichiro Yagami asked. Most of the team knew about her existence because of the suspicion of her being Kira. "I'm going to go get her," he said. Most of the investigation team were surprised by this, it seemed slightly out of character for Ryuzaki to go out himself, although lately he seemed to go out on more occasions in order to see this woman. Three time in total.

_She must be Kira. _Matsuda couldn't help but think. He was getting excited. They were getting closer to finding the real Kira; he could feel it and the feeling of excitement ran down his spines. Watari nodded at Ryuzaki's commands and began moving the screen which showed her room away. Ryuzaki calmly walked out of the hotel room and walked passed a few doors to the left. He finally stopped when he reached her room. He leaned in and layed his ear on the door to listen to any sounds. All he could hear was paper moving around slightly and someone picking at the computer. He stood back up and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" he heard a rather slow, heavy voice as the door opened slowly. To his surprised she had opened the door quite wide. He quickly scanned over her. She had her hair up in a bundle and she was wearing shorts that were many sizes to big for her and a large shirt. She didn't look anything alike the woman he had seen go out with Light to the bakery. Instead of a determined manner, she looked depressed, although her face didn't hint as much as her appearance. "L," she said letting the smallest of smiles slip out from her serious look. Ryuzaki looked around.

"Don't ever call me that again, you should call me Ryuzaki," he said right away in a calm manner. Her big eyes studied him. Ryuzaki took around her room. It had changed since he last saw it. It was even more disorganized and messy. And the pizza boxes seemed to have tripled; he had noticed how much she ate of pizza all of a sudden. "So are you ready to help us investigate?" he asked. For a moment her face seemed to brighten up a lot, but then it seemed that she switched it back to a slightly depressed manner.

"I'm not sure if I can be of anymore help," she said, looking down at the ground.

"But you come up with all sorts of good ideas, even some leads," he said, letting himself into her hotel room. She closed the door behind him. He kneeled down and took a piece of paper with names on it. It had Light Yagami's name on it, along with the names of other extremely gifted students who had something to do with law, even one who was the son of a politician. "I thought you said he wasn't the son of a politician," he said standing up.

"I'm just not sure anymore," she said in a heavy tone. "Just come with me," Ryuzaki said, dropping the paper. He began walking out of the hotel room; he turned around to make sure she was following him. She did, only with her head hung low. She followed him obediently down the hall and he led her into the hotel room where the entire investigation team was present. He couldn't help but lean in to whisper to her a few words of encouragement

"I think Kira is Light too, don't give up hope," he said. The investigation team was slightly taken off at this new behavior. It was far out of character for Ryuzaki to come so close with anyone. "This is the new member of our investigation team," he said. The members of the investigation team all introduced themselves. She was slightly hit off tracks when she noticed that Light was a part of the team.

"Nice to meet you all," she said slowly, in a heavy manner. She needed to watch out how she spoke around them. And she also needed to watch out for what she called herself.

The last thing she wanted to do was end up like _they_ had ended up.

"My name is Mizuki Oshiro," she said, bowing slightly in respect. She had to protect her name to matter what. "You're the one who's been giving us the hints, right?" a young looking man asked, the one who introduced himself as Matsuda. She nodded. "I'm afraid they might all be wrong, that my own personal investigation has been wrong all along," she said looking at him sadly. They all seemed to be puzzled at her behavior, and at the fact that Ryuzaki actually brought her in.


	9. Ständchen

**A/N:** man, this update was impossible to write. I feel that it isn't that good either. But I guess it's worth a shot. But I would like to hear what you think of it. I'm pretty sure most of the characters are sort of... out of character? Well, maybe that's because it's getting intense. xD Who knows.

* * *

As the investigation team discussed about the recent deaths and moreover the messages Kira was sending, she stared aimlessly at a wall. She tried her best to maintain the look of absolute no interest. Even though it didn't look like she was paying attention she was taking as many mental notes as possible and trying to memorize every detail of their talk.

"Here are images for you look through," Soichiro Yagami said, throwing a file onto the table, in her direction. She shook her head and pretended that they had managed to regain her attention. She picked up the file and slowly opened it. A couple of photographs fell out. She looked at the investigation team who seemed to be expecting something from her. She put the file back onto the table without closing it and picked up the photos that fell onto the floor. "What do you expect me to do with this?" she asked, looking at them with an expressionless look on her face.

"What is wrong with you? You used to be so excited," Matsuda said, standing up. She was surprised by how big of a reaction he was making to her depression. Wasn't this the first time they met? Light began talking him into calming down and the more she heard his voice she recognized how she could've possibly known him. "You're the guy who always answered the phone when I called," she said, looking at him. He seemed to feel slightly enlightened when she recognized him.

She diverted her attention away from Matsuda. _This is not the time to feel sentimental._ She told herself as she began going through the photographs. She wanted to find a clue to all those deaths, but nothing seemed to put any clue at any scene. Then she got an idea. What if she would provoke Light, criticizing Kira? She looked through the pictures and threw them onto the table when she reached a picture with a familiar face. Why did they have to put Hiro into the photographs they gave her? She tried her best to maintain her face, she was of course depressed to see his face but also angry. At least she had a bit more realistic depression to show to them.

"Kira is being stupid," she said, catching the attention of everyone in the room. Even a butler like person seemed to look up from whatever he was doing. He hadn't introduced himself so she assumed he was some sort of assistant to L-; Ryuzaki. Although he didn't show it, it felt as if Light paid special attention to her comment. "If he's playing so many games, why doesn't he give us small hints? Is he not confident enough to play a game of cat and mouse without bit more of a risk?" she said in a depressed manner.

_This is my chance, be the good guy_. That thought crossed Light's mind quickly. He would be able to trick her with that feeling. Pretending to cheer her would give him the perfect cover, and he could put her in the Death Note soon enough. Her depression was a good excuse. And she obviously wasn't a stable person. Of course Ryuzaki would hold this against him, but he'd have one less, clever person trying to track him down. **One less worry**. Why was he starting to get worried anyways? She wasn't much older than he was anyways, and he had never heard of her before.

"Don't give up, maybe he left a small, unnoticeable message, you just have to spend more time looking, I mean, he is a worthy opponent," he said reaching out and taking the photograph on the top. He looked at her and pulled out a really forced smile which was supposed to be reassuring.

She looked at him and saw the fake smile. On the outside she put up and small obviously forced smile but on the inside she kept a huge grin locked up. He had shown the reaction she wanted. He seemed to encourage her to keep on going. If he was Kira, he was probably planning on killing her off. _That's okay, I'll have him._ She wondered when she would have to set the plan into motion. "I'm going into my room to go through the photographs like Light suggested," she said, picking up the photographs slowly and then standing up. "Can I have that one?" he looked at the photograph he had in his hand. "Sure," he said, handing it to her, for some reason he remembered the guy's name by looking at his face. Momiji Yoshikawa, a low criminal who only did petty crimes with his father and older brother.

"I feel sorry for everyone who fell to the hands of Kira," she said sadly as she took the picture. Light looked at her, astound, the rest of the investigation team followed. "Don't you believe, like the masses, that maybe, just a little bit, that we're better off if Kira kills a few criminals and then we catch him?" everyone turned to Ryuzaki, now astound at his behavior. She took a deep breath, trying her best to control her temper. It was enough having the lead man going out of character, or that was what it looked like to her at least. If she became out of the character she just built up it could ruin her whole plan. "No, every aspect of what Kira is doing wrong, it's not up to a person who lives or dies, that's all up to the Shinigami's, and besides," she paused and looked down. She had managed to talk in a calm, slow tone even though she was so heated about this. "It's not justice," she said, looking at Light as she said those words, then directing her eyes towards Ryuzaki.

"If I had any skills, I would've caught Kira a long time ago, but now it's about time to give up, if I find nothing in the photographs, you'll never hear from me again," she said, turning around and just simply leaving the hotel room without a question.

"What an interesting reaction," Ryuzaki said, taking a sip of his overly sweetened tea.

_What a perfect reaction._ Light thought. Now all he had to wait for was her admitting she found nothing.

* * *

It had already been nine days, two hours and seventeen minutes since she set her plan into action. She had occasionally dropped by their hotel room where they had been investigating in; talking about the pictures she had gone through. Talking about how well she had looked at all of the details but wasn't finding anything. Light seemed more and more pleased by her actions, although she felt it was a shame that no one else seemed to notice. The last two days had been the hardest. For some odd reason, after every word of encouragement Ryuzaki spoke to her she was more drawn to his hunched figure and sleepless eyes. When she would take breaks from looking at the photos she thought about him. Whether he had actually bought her plan. His words of encouragement.

She looked at the last photo. The guy from a normal heart attack, but as soon as she saw the photograph something didn't feel right. She studied it closely for a couple of minutes. And then she saw it, the same thing that reminded of her when she found him, lying in bed.

"_Onii-chan," the house felt so empty, it was as if her call echoed. _

"_Onii-chan, I'm back, I bought leeks, so we can have leek stew," she announced. She hadn't meant to be gone almost all day, but while shopping so many cute outfits caught her eyes. She would've done anything for one of those cute skirts._

"_Onii-chan?" she opened his study room, and as soon as she looked in, she dropped the bags she held in her right hand._

She shook her head. She didn't have time to think about memories. They would only hold her back. She stood up and walked to her violin case. She opened it carefully and took out the violin she loved so dearly. It had been her one and only present from her brothers that they didn't acquire through dirty tricks. She began playing it softly, but filled the song with sorrow as her playing proceeded.

Ständchen by Schubert.

He really loved that song. It was his favorite song and she always played it for him when he asked her. He was the only person who could control her temper and make her maintain her anger by using single words.

_The window was wide open, and the sun was breaking into the room. There he was laying on his desk, with his eyes closed. She knew right away what happened._

She stopped playing as soon as she finished the last note. She carefully layed her violin back into its case and stared at the name on the inside of the top. If they would inspect her room after her disappearance, they would most likely find the case, and Light could permanently get rid of her. She walked over to the phone in the room and dialed the familiar number.

How many times had she dialed it now?

"Ständchen by Schubert, you are an absolutely outstanding player," she was greeted with the now known voice. It was Ryuzaki who always greeted her with compliments of her music. She felt her body rapidly increasing in warmth. Why was it that such a simple, frequent comment had such a big impact on her body?

"I wanted to say goodbye," she said, in a calm tone. She didn't put up the act of depression now.

"You just entered the field," she laughed. What a bizarre thing to say to her. _It was stupid._

"I have a plan, I need space,"

"He's smarter than you think, not just any plan works here,"

"That's okay, as far as I'm concerned, whether my plan fails or succeeds, you'll be able to figure it out from there," she said those words with the most confidence she had felt in years.

She put the phone back without even saying anything more to him. She cleaned up the papers and put them in one stack and made sure everything was almost clean, as if she was fixing everything before she left for her plan. She looked at her violin. She had two choices, take it with her and know for sure that she'd live, or leave it and gamble on whether she would make out of this long time mission alive. She ran her hand over it once and took a deep breath.

"Where's the fun in being safe?" she asked herself as she left the hotel room. It was time to say goodbye to the investigation team.


	10. Hourglass

**A/n:** I noticed a fault in the last chapter. ___ It said her brother was on a bed first, then a desk. I believe so at least. I'll check it again later just to be sure. Anyways, sorry if this chapter is badly written. I tried my best to convey what I wanted here. ^_^ I'm thinking about makign this fanfic longer than I intended too. But I'm not exactly sure. What do you guys think? Anyways, thanks for reading. (:

* * *

The hallway to where the hotel room where the investigation team were staying in seemed a lot shorter than before. She wasn't exactly looking forward to saying something to them. What could she possibly say to make them think she'd go and disappear- forever? She looked at the floor in front of her, thinking heavily as she walked forward. Her stomach had a knot, knowing that she had left her room clean. Frankly, she wanted to keep it the way it was.

Keeping it clean would make her seem out of character.

She stopped, mentally noting to herself. They couldn't possibly know her character. How could they know anything about how she normally acted, what way she liked to live and what she felt most comfortable with? The only human contact with them she had was within the last nine days, two hours and twenty four minutes, and she only spent with them a time totaling of…

She thought for a while. She needed to do the math to find out how long she had spent with them. Although she had brilliant intuitive and seemingly good attention she wasn't very bright in academic stages, only graduating middle school. After a while, she got it.

She had spent sixteen hours and forty eight minutes with them.

She began walking towards the hotel room again, the hallway now becoming longer than it was before. She was still deep in thought about whether to leave her room clean or whether she should go back and make it like she liked it. Again she stopped to debate herself, before quickly mentally slapping herself remembering that she was going to say goodbye to them, and it would be suspicious if she took too long. _Or would it be suspicious if I came too soon?_ She shrugged. She only told Ryuzaki that she was coming, so the others wouldn't know. She began walking again, but after only a few steps she reached the hotel room door.

"That sure took forever," she murmured to herself before taking a deep breath and preparing herself to seem depressed. Before she could knock on the door it was opened. She wasn't at all surprised when her eyes met with dark, sleepless eyes. She couldn't help but smile on the inside as she saw him; the slightly hunched, tired looking yet strangely appealing man. "I'm sorry," she said, bowing quickly down and then looking at him with a sad expression. She walked into the hotel room after he had opened the door wide enough.

"Just stay," she was now used to him whispering random sentences, mostly encouraging, into her ear, yet she still got goose bumps. She didn't answer him, nor did allow herself to look at his face. _This is stupid. I'm never around this man anyways; his words shouldn't affect me like this._ She told herself walking to meet with the investigation team. They didn't seem surprised at all to see her, which was understandable, since she was now sort of a frequent guest, even though they had only spent sixteen hours forty eight minutes together. She felt like she knew every one of them personally.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity to work with you, you are probably the most hardworking people I've met in my whole life," she said, bowing in respect and in an apologetic manner. The investigation team all looked up when they heard what she had said. "As you know, I said you would never hear from me if I didn't find anything from the photographs, and I'm not going to back down on my words," she said, her tone becoming heavier with every word.

"You don't have to leave because you said you would," that oddly calm voice said from behind her. Again, he was seemingly going out of character, which meant she had to be more careful to stay in the character she had created. "Listen to Ryuzaki, we need you," she was surprised to hear Light Yagami say those words. She looked at him with her eyes wide is astonishment. Then she realized it. Light was hoping that she'd still go away; it was either a cover up or some way to guarantee that she'll leave.

"I am of no use to anyone anymore," she mumbled lowly, trying to work a few tears. "I have failed them, in my mission to help capture Kira, I don't belong here," she said, a few tears streaming down her face. She turned around and walked passed Ryuzaki towards the door which was out of sight from where the investigation team was. They had a huge hotel room, which usually would've bothered her, but she was happy, now she could finally get away.

She could hear footsteps following her. When she got to the door she paused for a moment. Internally arguing whether she should turn around to see the person or whether she should keep her head hung low. She couldn't remember having to make so many decisions in the same day before, at least not in a long time. But her time to think ran out when someone grabbed her oversized sweater and tugged at it slightly like a shy child did to its mother. She turned her head and there stood Ryuzaki. She let out a heavy sigh.

"I'm worried that whatever your plan is, it'll fail," he said clearly, even though he spoke in such a low tone. She studied his face. It seemed to be a bit less emotionless than usually. Truthfully told she was overjoyed by his reaction to her leaving. It would make the perfect memory if she were to die before ever being able to see him again. There was something about him that calmed her down. She grabbed his wrist and slowly pulled it away from herself and as soon as he finally let go of her she let go of his hand in fear of something happening.

"If I don't call here in the next seventeen days, twenty one hours and three minutes, my…" she paused. It would be wrong of her to call Light just **her** suspect. "Our suspect is probably to blame," she said in a low tone, turning away from him. "Goodbye Ryuzaki," she said now with her normal tone, opening the hotel room and leaving it. This meant that she couldn't turn back and now she only faced two options.

Win or lose.

Then she remembered. She still had to fix her room like she wanted it. She rushed back to her hotel room and it didn't take her long to get in and get started. She really hated leaving it all clean.

* * *

Ryuzaki had left straight for his private room after she had left. He had gone straight to the screens which had shown him her personality and almost everything he would've wanted to know if he suspected her to be Kira. He sat in his normal position and picked up a nearby lollipop and began sucking on it. He stared at the screens, anticipating her going back in, taking her violin and leaving.

Then she finally came in, and as if she was coming into his room, he could almost smell that sweet perfume which lingered. He talked himself out of thinking about that perfume. It was probably just the smell of some sweet he had in his room. He wasn't obsessed with her. He returned his attention to the screens only to see her doing something that seemed overly violent for her. She was trashing her room. Throwing the papers she had neatly stacked and the clothes she had put into the closet were thrown onto the floor and trampled upon and stuck under the bed. She spent a good half hour making everything she had cleaned just hours ago back into a mess.

"Watari," he said calmly, pulling out the lollipop in his mouth. "Have someone, not the investigation team, follow her and protect her," he said, not taking his eyes off of the screen. She now stood over her violin, stroking the case. Watari nodded to Ryuzaki's directions and left off to make the arrangements.

Ryuzaki watched as she left the hotel room, leaving behind her violin case. He was slightly shocked, and frightened by her action. Why would she leave something so precious behind?

He looked at the time that had passed.

Roughly seventeen days, twenty hours and twenty seven minutes left in the imaginary hourglass he had now etched in his mind.


	11. 5:21:47

It had been nearly twelve days since she left. More precisely it had been eleven days, twenty three hours and forty seven minutes since the investigation team had seen her face. She had come to them and confessed her feeling of being useless and she had stubbornly left. The short time she had spent with them was the reason why her departure didn't affect them too much as a group.

But theories about her emerged as quickly as four hours after her departure. Mogi and Soichiro agreed on the possibility that she was Kira and that she had managed to worm her way into the investigation despite Ryuzaki's initial accusations. Matsuda argued with the two of them, in a somewhat overly enthusiastic manner. Light suggested that perhaps her depression had gotten the best of her- her words surely suggested that option. However, he also suggested that his father and Mogi were right; her character had changed drastically from the time he had gone out with her to the bakery to when he met her again as a part of the investigation team.

The theories were most simple and didn't have much thought put into them. When someone mentioned a theory a conversation would arouse for an hour but the investigation of Kira began as soon as the discussion was over.

They sat in the main room, most of them b the table. No leads to Kira had been found, no solid evidence or ever a clue to who he might be. "Ryuzaki, aren't you worried that Mizuki's Kira or maybe an ally of his?" Mogi said, using the name she had introduced herself with. Ryuzaki's full attention was usually hard to capture but he turned his head towards Mogi and looked at him his eyes looking more restless than ever. The room became silent, as if everyone- and everything, were waiting for his reply. He knew he couldn't tell them that she was being watched. He wasn't sure what her plan really was, but it seemed to involving proving that Light was Kira. As much as he disliked it, he had decided to let her try out her plan.

"I believe Miss Oshiro will take care of us, whether she intends to or not, we all gave her a fake alias, and we haven't progressed much since she came," he said after thinking about his reply carefully. He was pretty sure that he had managed to make the investigation team and Light think that he knew nothing about her whereabouts or plans. A few muscles automatically stiffened up when he recalled what Watari had told him eight days earlier. Even though he had asked Watari to send someone to follow her, and Watari choose the best man for the job, she somehow disappeared after only three days.

"I'm going out for some fresh air," Light announced, breaking Ryuzaki's concentration of her wellbeing. Soichiro agreed and everyone seemed relieved that someone was taking a break. Soon the room had emptied out and the only people left in the room were Ryuzaki and Watari. The fact that Watari had known Ryuzaki for such a long time, it wasn't hard for him to notice that Ryuzaki was tense and the reasons for him being tense were only two in his mind.

Light had somehow found out Ryuzaki's real name, or something about her came up in his mind.

"Why don't you go get some rest, Ryuzaki?" Watari suggested in a caring tone. Ryuzaki nodded.

Rest. That was a word he didn't hear often- at least not directed towards him. Ryuzaki stepped off of the chair and walked with heavy steps towards his private room. Before she arrived he had just about enough rest. However, since she had gone out to eat with Light that one time it gradually grew more difficult to "rest", especially after she left and they had lost track of her so soon. This wasn't like his normal feeling to provide justice to someone. He didn't feel like he was doing it for the same reasons. He didn't feel obligated to try to save her, but instead he felt a longing to keep her safe.

He calmly walked towards the bed in the room. How long had it been since he had slept in a proper bed? During the Kira case he usually slept while sitting. He lied down onto his side, facing the screen which showed him her room. For some reason, the room was in the same messy state she had left it in. Despite the twelve days and nineteen minutes that had passed since she left. He forced himself to shut his eyes. If he didn't, he would probably never be able to get her out of his mind. The fact that she somehow always seemed to be on it annoyed him- no, it frustrated him. The last thing he wanted to be was… fascinated? Or was mesmerized a more fitting word? He slowed down his thinking process so that he could relax properly. After a while he finally managed to capture the true meaning of 'rest'.

* * *

She panted as she stopped by the side of some rode. She had accepted a ride with a man who offered to drive her wherever she wanted, but she ended up in a small farm somewhere in the outskirts and after six days of staying in that place, which for some reason had no phone, she had decided to try to head back. She needed to find a phone to call him. To let him know she was alive. She took a couple of deep breaths and calmed herself down. All she needed to do was follow her intuition. Her father had always told her that they'd make of good use in situations like that.

She had promised herself to not do anything stupid during these seventeen days, twenty one hours and three minutes. She didn't even have a clock so she could watch her time. She wanted to get a chance to call him before Light would enter her room. She was almost a hundred percent sure that if he was Kira, he would eventually find out there her room was paid for the next month and he would somehow find a way to get into her room. She was actually secretly hoping that he would open the violin case and see that she had given him a fake name.

Suddenly realizing that he could be entering her room at any given moment she made a face. She needed to get to the phone. Maybe, if possible, she would be able to stay on the line long enough with Ryuzaki for Light to kill her while she was at it. She was slightly puzzled at her obligation to let him know somehow, it was similar feeling of obligation she felt towards her father and brothers yet with a big difference she couldn't put her finger on. She shrugged it off; it was probably that she idolized him, since he would be the one who would capture Kira. He would be the one who would capture the person who got rid of almost everyone around her. She nodded in approval of her thoughts and began running once again.

She wasn't going to lose to either Kira or time.

* * *

Light happily walked away from the front desk. It wasn't too hard convincing them to give him the key. The only thing he needed to do was span up a story about him and Mizuki. He had told them that they were engaged, and that he wanted to surprise her. He emphasized the word surprise so well that they seemed to fall into awe as soon as he finished his sentence. _That's the downside to have such naïve people at the counter._ He thought to himself, smirking. He entered the elevator and pressed the floor number. He was getting all excited over nothing.

He needed to make sure that she wouldn't come back.

He waltzed right out of the elevator and made his way down the hall, the opposite way to where the investigation mainly took place. He looked at room numbers, trying to spot number 416. Soon he had found the door he was looking for. He had been there once before- at least properly. That time he had invited her out and commented on her playing. He smiled slyly to himself. She actually believed that he knew anything about that stupid song she played while he hadn't even been listening. He put in the card key and the door seemed to open magically. He wasn't surprised to see the same messy room as he had seen before. Everything was there like last time. The papers, the violin, the computer and her clothes. His first thought was to make his way to the computer, which was an obvious place to keep personal records.

He kicked around things that were in his way. Mainly papers. The computer was set on the floor by the foot of the bed. He sat down on the floor and opened the screen. The computer was plugged in and for some reason it was also turned on. He looked at the screen carefully. There was a count down open.

**5:21:47**

What was it counting down to? He thought to himself but ignoring it. She probably had some important even going on that she wasn't able to remember. He browsed through her computer, breaking passwords where it was necessary. She had a lot of pictures; most of them were scanned into the computer and were of small children, always the four same children appearing and every now and then a young, happy looking couple. But he didn't find any important documents. She had a few ones labeled with Kira. He quickly scanned over the first ten files, but the last one he read thoroughly. It was almost like a detailed summary of every thing she had done since she began investigating Kira. It started almost a year earlier. Only four days were missing until it was exactly a year.

Suddenly a click sound emerged from behind him. He turned his head to see the door starting to open. He suddenly panicked. He made a mistake? He was sure that they had stopped watching her when she joined the investigation team, and after she left there was no reason for them to watch her. So it couldn't have been that Ryuzaki, or anyone else, would know of him being there.

"Looks like she didn't intend to leave at all," that all too familiar, oddly sounding voice said, its words almost echoing throughout the room.

* * *

**A/n: **so, I guess some of you might be thinking "Eh? But wasn't he sleeping?" or something like that. xD Well, as you all know, it seems he always knows everything. That's my excuse for him suddenly appearing. Besides that. I feel like both Ryuzaki and "She" whose name is Nariko (as you might remember Ryuzaki thinking sometime ago) are a bit obsessive... But I guess it goes with their characters, Ryuzaki being slightly eccentric and her being... well, not making sense usually I believe. I'd appreciate comments! ^______^


	12. Last Word

* * *

**A/n:** gosh. I'm so sorry about not updating earlier. _ I've been so busy with school, and then I have my flute practices and we've just had a lot to do. But that's really a horrible excuse. I've had this chapter sitting in my computer for weeks, but haven't found the time to actually update. But here's another chapter. I feel that there's something quite wrong in the second scene of this one... Anyone find anything strange let me know. xD And by the way, I just chose some place by random. If it doesn't fit or something, let me know. ^_^ Once again, terribly sorry.

* * *

She had found her way into the city, but it seemed to be impossible to find any sign of a phone booth. She didn't even know where to look. She just ran past every house and every single person she could catch sight of. Her high school days had finally come of some use to her. Although she hadn't been a bright student she was considered quite gifted in the field of track and was usually in a good state, although it had worsened considerably since she started investigating Kira. Her determination to call Ryuzaki had given her the strength she needed to keep on running towards her goal, towards an invisible phone booth.

The last fifteen minutes and seventeen seconds her shoelace had come undone and she had failed to notice it. With her luck, she managed to not trip over it from that time, but then by chance she stepped onto it. She flew down onto her front and slid a bit because of the speed she was running at. She moaned as she sat up, rubbing her hands and trying to regain her direction. For a moment she forgot what she had been doing.

"Are you okay?" she was startled to hear a man ask her. She looked up and there was a tall handsome man kneeling in front of her. She looked at the wounds she had received from her fall and then returned her gaze towards the man. "Yes, I just tripped," she said as she started, unconsciously, tying her shoelaces.

"You seem to be in a hurry," the man said, his words reminding her that she had been doing something. She finished tying her shoe laces and stood up, dusting off of herself and looked around. No phone booth in sight. "I'm looking for a phone booth," she said not even bothering to look at his face. She could feel the vibes of awkwardness coming from the man. She looked around nervously. "Look, just go straight down, within ten minutes-" he paused. "Few minutes with your speed, you'll see one to your right," he commanded her. She finally looked at him and nodded. "Thank you," she mumbled before running away.

She finally reached a phone booth. She was panting and trying to concentrate as she entered it. She needed to dial the number. But the first thing that came to mind was how long it had been since she had seen one. If she remembered correctly it had been exactly eleven days, sixteen hours and fifteen minutes. She picked up the phone and tried her best to dial his number. Her whole body was shaking from exhaustion. She had strained herself physically by running all the way into the town and looking around frantically. If it hadn't been for that man, she probably wouldn't have found one.

Her head started spinning. The numbers became jumbled up in front of her. She shook her head. Since when was five the second number? She held the phone up to her ear and waited as it rang. She waited to hear his voice which could almost tell anyone who eccentric he was. She counted.

_Once._

_Twice._

…

_Seven._

She only had four minutes left. Or was it two days and eighteen minutes? She couldn't remember anymore. No one was answering. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall of the phone booth, just resting her eyes. Then she slid down slowly, exhausted.

* * *

Light turned around quickly, trying to conceal his fear. What had gotten Ryuzaki to come to her room? He quickly closed the laptop and stood up, shocked. Ryuzaki walked slowly towards him until he was uncomfortably close. His tired eyes seemed sharper and his composed manner seemed to be slightly off, only by a something slightly smaller than a nanometer. What did he mean she never intended to leave?

He froze. Maybe he was assuming that he had killed her off, somehow.

"Everything's a mess, she even left her violin and the laptop you were searching," Ryuzaki announced looking around. Light kept his composed manner. "She had obviously paid the room to stay like this for a while," Light said, trying to ask as if he was doing nothing wrong. Ryuzaki looked at him while running his hand over the violin case. "What I find strange, Light, is that you were snooping around her room without telling anyone, and lying," he said, grabbing the handle of the case. Light kept his composure and nodded. Of course he did.

"I just wanted to check and asses the situation," he said, not thinking over as carefully as he usually did. He couldn't think of a good reason to be in her room without telling Ryuzaki. Saying he thought he had heard her call out would be stupid and most other things he would've thought about too weren't good ideas. He tried to keep himself from shaking and letting his nerves get the best of him. His eyes looked around the room quickly, noticing that Ryuzaki had just pointed out the obvious. He directed his eyes back to Ryuzaki.

Ryuzaki stared at Light without moving a muscle. The silence that filled the room wasn't comfortable; it was more like the atmosphere that was between two men who had unsettled business to attend to. They stood there, for a while. Ryuzaki was determined to not look away, and he was sure that Light wouldn't look away either.

The buzz in his pocket caught him slightly off guard, but he didn't look away. Ryuzaki reached down and pulled out his phone. He carefully, and slowly, opened it and lifted it up to his ears. He was almost positive that it was Watari who was calling him, although an unrealistic hope within him was ignited. He would've preferred it to be her. Then he was greeted with Watari's voice.

"Nine minutes and thirteen seconds ago you received a phone call from Ichinomiya in Aichi Prefecture," Watari announced calmly. "It's from a local pay phone," he added the additional information which caused Ryuzaki to feel slightly surprised. "I'm coming, we need to find out about the exact whereabouts of the pay phone, and if anyone has seen anyone around there," he said before closing his phone and sticking it back in his pocket. He broke the gaze from Light and reached out and took her violin.

It seems that she was probably alive. He was astonished to feel enlightened. He held the violin case tightly in his hand and he began to walk out of the room. He stopped for a second, wanting to say something to Light. He always needed to have the last word. He turned around and saw that Light's face expressed dissatisfaction and bitterness.

_I guess I got the last word._


	13. Autumn

**A/n:** finally, I started this chapter. Actually, I had a new chapter, but it sucked so badly that I started over again. -.-' I am too picky about my writing. It took me a while to get started on this one, but after I found the song that inspired a big part of this story, I actually went on a roll! Although I'm not a 100% with the words I use and how out of character they have become (at least at times) I still wanted to post this. I've finally made up my mind on how this is all going to end. Tell me what you think about this chapter? (^___^)"

* * *

It hadn't taken them all too long to find the exact location of the pay phone. It was situated not too far from the end of the city which faced a more unpopulated area. Ryuzaki grew more and more curious of how she went from Tokyo to Ichinomiya and he wondered whether it was a coincidence that the pay phone was situated close to the rural area. However, finding anyone on that area to speak with was quite difficult. It seemed that the call had been made around lunch hours and although many people had been out there was no one who was working at that time who had noticed her, or at least they said so.

"She will call you back, I'm sure," Watari said, trying to reassure Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki wanted to nod his head in agreement, but the fact that she had tried away right after her first call made him unsure. Watari didn't even get a chance to get him from the time from where she started calling to when she would've hung up.

"Ryuzaki, we heard that you received a call?" Matsuda said, running into the room. Just like always, he seemed to be the most excited and spirited in the group. "I believe that there's a possibility that Miss Yoshikawa was trying to reach us," he said, not realizing what error he had made. Matsuda looked at him expectantly for a while. Ryuzaki looked back to Watari, thinking about what to say to do next. He could hear as the rest of the members of the investigation team arrived, including Light. From his perspective he only saw two actions he would have to use from that point. Either he would explain that she had called and that chances were that she needed to talk to them, or he would say it was possibly an anonymous tipper, like they had grown so accustomed to. He didn't want to ruin the plan she had set out, but he had no way of telling whether she wanted Light to find out that she had called.

"Excuse me, Ryuzaki, but who is this Miss Yoshikawa?" Soichiro asked. Ryuzaki froze in his spot. He had forgotten. _How could I have been so careless?_ He thought to himself, scolding himself and mentally slapping himself continuously. She had told them that her name was Mizuki Oshiro and he had let by accident called her Yoshikawa. This was an error far beyond what he had thought he could make. He looked at the violin case next to him, only for a split second. He didn't need Light to realize what was going through his mind.

"Yoshikawa? Where have I heard that name before?" Mogi said, thinking to himself. Ryuzaki reacted quickly and let out a small laugh. "I'm sorry, I guess I've been slightly out of it, I was running through Kira's victims when I heard about the phone call," he said, pausing to remember the name of the criminal who had the same last name as she did. "Momiji Yoshikawa was the last name I looked at before speaking to you, of course, I meant to say Miss Oshiro," he said, scratching his head in a made up awkward manner. The investigation team was slightly taken back by his mistake- since he didn't make many of them.

"I guess even Ryuzaki can be human at times," Matsuda said in an awkward tone, getting everyone to lighten up. Of course, he was just like them. He could make mistakes and he could mix people up. Her disappearance had confused all of them. Ryuzaki looked at Light to see his reactions. He seemed stunned, although he was trying to hide it.

Light tried his best to keep his composure. What if Ryuzaki's mix up wasn't a mix up and not really farfetched either? If she really never had any intentions to leave then he wouldn't have gotten rid of her for real, and she was still a dangerous threat. _But what was up with him calling her Yoshikawa? Out of all the names…_ Maybe there was some connection, and he needed to find out before Ryuzaki did.

"Light, could you and Matsuda go and do some grocery shopping?" Ryuzaki asked. He had a bad feeling after making that mistake and he didn't want to give Light a chance to find anything out. Light and Matsuda both accepted with a smile and a nod. Ryuzaki stood up and walked towards Matsuda. "Don't let him out of your sight please, Matsuda, you could just be saving the case," he said in a calm tone. Matsuda looked at him for a moment, surprised, but he nodded and smiled towards Light. "Let's go now," he said and as they walked out Light turned around and glanced at Ryuzaki. Was getting to her becoming a race?

As soon as they left, Ryuzaki let out a sigh of relief. "Ryuzaki, you don't still think that Light is Kira?" Soichiro asked, worried. Ryuzaki looked at him and nodded. "Indeed, I still believe that he is Kira, and meeting him in Nar- Mizuki's hotel room earlier today just makes me believe it even more," he said, and the shock on Soichiro's face was without a doubt slightly painful to look upon.

"I'm sorry Soichi-". "Ryuzaki, someone is calling us from a cell phone," Watari announced, breaking Ryuzaki off from apologizing to Soichiro. Ryuzaki didn't hesitate to jump right towards where the phone was and pick it up. His reaction to the phone call was way out of character, and Soichiro and Mogi exchanged confused looks.

"Hello?" Ryuzaki asked, his voice breaking out of its normally calm and collected tone.

* * *

She stretched out her hands and grabbed something smooth, soft and silky. She let her hands wander around and soon she grabbed something cold and metallic. She let go and started thinking. Where was she? She tried to recall the last thing that she had been doing. For a moment all she could picture was her brothers, Hiro, Momiji and Aki. She felt like her chest was heavy for a moment. "Aki?" she called out, but received no answer. Then she was able to remember what she had been doing.

The last…

How many days had it been since she started hunting down Kira? She couldn't remember. She had been looking for him for so long. Maybe he had gotten into her room and now she was dying because he found out the truth about her name. She wished that she hadn't left her violin. She felt lonely without being able to play her favorite songs. Kira had taken away her father, and then her brothers. Now she had given up her violin and she had left the only person she found interesting since elementary school.

She slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by a bright white room. She smiled to herself. It wasn't a big surprise that she was in a white room. She sat up and looked around, only to be surprised when she saw a man sleeping on the couch. He seemed vaguely familiar. After a while the man seemed to stir and he woke up. He looked at her, curious, and surprised. "You're awake!" he said, walking towards her. She stared at him. Did she know him?

"Oh, I'm sorry, you don't even know me," he said, his face turning slightly red and the embarrassment was obvious miles away. "I'm Aki Akechi," he said, slightly ashamed of his name. Her mouth was open in surprise. This man we the one who had directed her to the phone booth. She now remembered. What surprised her more though was his name. The coincidence of him sharing the same name as one of her brothers was nearly unbelievable.

"Can I make one call?" she asked, remembering that she was trying to get a hold of Ryuzaki. The man looked at her, puzzled. "And I'm sorry for having troubled you, if I have, but I really need to make a phone call," she said. Aki looked at her for a few moments before nodding and handing her his cell phone. She thanked him and quickly began dialing the number she had been desperately trying to reach.

He was amazed by her determination. She had passed out in a phone booth after straining her body to a point where it seemed inhuman and waking up only a short while after in a hospital only to want to make that call. He wondered what could be so important.

_Once._

_Twice._

She didn't have to count beyond two, seeing that a strangely familiar, yet unfamiliar, voice sounded on the other line.

"Hello?" it asked her, uneasy and far from calm.


	14. Checkmate

**A/n:** So... here's an update. I'm quite ashamed for the time between the update, but hey. I've moved to the United States! I like this update... mainly because of the end. Anyways, I have no idea of distance between the two places. I just guessed... using a globe. xD anyways, enjoy the update, and once again, sorry for the late update.

* * *

She tried to force herself to answer him, but she had no idea what she was going to say to him. How was she going to explain the earlier call, the one she had made in the phone booth? And was she going to be able to tell him how she got to Ichinomiya? The fact that she had left running away made her feel ashamed, and unworthy of Ryuzaki's trust. She began to tremble as she held the phone. Tears began flowing freely down her cheek.

"I'm sorry Ryuzaki, I'm sorry, this was a stupid idea," her reply to his hello was something far off from what she would've wanted him to hear. She wanted to be strong, to have it figured out. She wanted to be someone who he could work with and depend on- like the investigation team was. Aki watched her curiously, he had no idea who she was but she was something else. The extremities she went through looking tough as a nail and breaking down at the sound of someone's voice.

"Tell me where you are," Ryuzaki said, his voice not as monotone as usually. He sounded more human. He didn't feel a need to let her know that he had already tracked down the city, nor that Watari was in the process of tracking down her possible locations. He waited patiently as the only thing coming from her side of the phone was silence.

"I'm in a hospital, in Ichinomiya," she managed to pull those words out of herself. She thought for a second to recall how she got to Ichinomiya. "I accepted a ride from this man, who offered to drive me wherever I wanted, and I ended up in the outskirts around here, like a 10 minutes drive from the rural area. I stayed there for six day, without a telephone, I think," she explained quickly, trying to avoid questions. "I wanted to get as far away from…" she paused. What was she running away from anyways? All she had needed to do was just hide away from Kira, it wasn't like she was truly afraid of him, he was just part of another cat and mouse game. She stared in front of herself, dumbfounded that she didn't know what she was running away from. Why had she been so desperate to get away? For the first time in a long period of time she didn't know what her plans had been or what they were going to be. She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

"I'll drive you back to wherever you need to go," her thoughts were interrupted by Aki's offer. She looked at him and felt slightly enlightened, although his meddling seemed a bit out of place. Didn't he have a job or something? She nodded in a thankful manner. "If you wouldn't mind driving me to Tokyo, then I will gleefully accept your offer," she said and he nodded, signaling that it was no problem. She closed her eyes and began to think. It took roughly three days to go from Ichinomiya to Tokyo by car, assuming that they would be driving at a perfectly legal speed.

"Who is there with you?" she was startled to hear Ryuzaki ask her a question on the phone. She had lost herself in thinking. "His name is Aki Akechi, he's the one who brought me to the hospital after I collapsed," she said. "Collapsed?" Ryuzaki's voice sounded worried. "Yes, collapsed. I exhausted my body with running too far of a distance, or something like that," she said looking at Aki questionably. "Over exhaustion, straining your body to a point where you couldn't walk," he told her and she repeated his words exactly.

"How long do you have to stay in the hospital?" Ryuzaki asked, his voice sounding more and more like it used. Calm, monotone and slightly soothing. "I get out in an hour, according to Aki," she said, purposely lying to Ryuzaki to avoid any possible worries or scolding. "I'll be there in a couple of days Ryuzaki, I promise, I'm going to help you capture him," she said, avoiding saying Light or Kira because she had no idea what stand in this Aki had.

"Alright," Ryuzaki replied. Although he didn't want to let her get off the phone, she wasn't using her own phone or her own money which meant that the owner of the phone she was using could have been directing her to get off. "I'll be waiting for you… And I'm keeping your violin safe," he added. He had wanted to call her by her real name, Nariko, but wasn't able to due to the investigation team being present. He kept the phone up against his ear until he heard the click letting him know that she hung up.

* * *

_Du…_

_Du…_

_Du…_

"Was that her?" Mogi asked, in a clam, collected manner. Ryuzaki turned towards him and nodded. "Yes, it was, it seems that she's on her way back to Tokyo from Ichinomiya," he said picking up a lollipop from a basket of sweet he had lying around. He stuck it into his mouth. He needed to regain his character. Loosing himself in front of the investigation team, even just for a second, was far too unlike him. He assumed that it would cause a feeling similar to uneasiness. That was the last kind of atmosphere that they needed.

"Aren't you worried that maybe she's Kira?" Soichiro asked, crossing his hands in an angry manner. Ryuzaki nodded, even though he didn't suspect her at all to be Kira. "That is why we'll be keeping her by our sides at all times when she returns," he said, reassuring Soichiro that Light wasn't the only one being suspected. That was what really matter, keeping both her and Light close. "Watari, could you run a search on Aki Akechi for me," Ryuzaki commanded, pulling the lollipop in his mouth out. Watari nodded and went over to his own computer and began conducting a search on her new travelling companion.

"Mogi, can you call Matsuda and ask him to return with Light? I want to hold a meeting on the progress of the case and the phone call from… Miss Oshiro," he said, refraining from using her real name. He wasn't going to do the same mistake twice. Mogi nodded and got up his cell phone. Ryuzaki contently placed the lollipop back into his mouth. He finally had everything under his control. "Aki Akechi, born and raised in Hokkaido, comes from a normal family, father works for a company as an accountant and his mother was a stay at home mother until she did five years ago, he's twenty six years old and has five siblings, three brothers and two sisters, all alive and well," Watari said, reporting with information on Aki. His search result had come in quickly, thankfully. "He's a big supporter of Kira, and writes a blog on him," the last line startled Ryuzaki, but he knew that she would know better than to talk with a stranger about the case, or even her views on Kira.

Mogi returned into the room, looking awkward. Ryuzaki looked at him with a brow raised. "The meeting will begin as soon as they arrived," he said, assuming that Mogi was just being awkward because of the long phone call. Mogi scratched his head in a discomfited manner. "That might take some time," he murmured, catching Ryuzaki's attention. "What do you mean with that Mogi?" he asked, sharply. What could possibly delay them from returning to the hotel?

"Well… It seems that Matsuda lost Light,"


	15. Ready, set, go!

**A/n:** hey, I'm updating with short period of time in between because today is a year since I started this story. :D I'm not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed for my lack of updates. xD But anyways, here's another chapter, enjoy.

* * *

"You drive like a maniac!" she said looking at Aki behind the wheel. He was driving way over the legal speed limit. They had been driving for maybe three hours and she was sure that they were already one tenth of the way to Tokyo. Aki smiled and looked at her happily. "You need to get to your boyfriend as soon as possible, right?" he asked, grinning. She hit him lightly in the shoulder as her face turned a light shade of red.

"Ryuzaki and I have a strictly business relationship, we see each other as colleagues," she said rushed. She felt nervous, like Aki had found out a secret that would give it all away. She admired Ryuzaki and she liked being around him; he had a relaxing presence. His eccentricity was interesting to watch, that's why she liked looking at him when she did so. She sighed. She didn't like Ryuzaki in any other way than a child idolizes their best friend.

"That's why you're red, nervous and lost in thought about him? I heard your conversation you know, and you two are at least friends," he said momentarily looking away from the road to look at her. He grinned when she didn't reply. He had the same nature as Hiro, pleasant but the type who likes to tease. She crossed her arms and looked out her window. She didn't want to explain anything about how she felt about Ryuzaki. She didn't need to explain anything to anyone.

"I'm sorry," Aki apologized after a couple of minutes. "I was just trying to poke some fun," he added, shrugging his shoulders in an innocent manner.

"It's okay, you actually remind me of my brother," she said, thinking about Hiro with a smile.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he used to love to make fun of me,"

"What was his name?"

"Well, Hiro was the one who you're like, but I had two others, Momiji and Aki,"

The tone in her voice sounded like she didn't like talking about her brothers, which got him to drop the subject. The car had become uncomfortably silent after she had named her brothers, and Aki wasn't one to like the silence. He stretched out awkwardly and turned on the radio.

"He protects us! He is justice! He is eliminating every criminal out there, he is a God!"

She looked away from the window and looked at the radio astonished. Did Kira have his own radio for support? She looked at Aki and he seemed to have a satisfied look on his face. She refrained from letting out a sigh. She wasn't exactly surprised that Aki was a supporter, seeing that Kira had a lot of supporters all over the country. She turned her head back towards the window.

_This is going to be a long day._

* * *

"All libraries, all cafes, every place where you can get any information about a person, notify everyone that he is not allowed to enter and that he is to be arrested," Ryuzaki said with a tired look on his face. He was worried, what if Light had already gotten the information he wanted? What if he was about to kill her? He was positive that he would be able to keep her from dying when she left, but now he felt like he was letting her down. He turned his head to see Watari cleaning up the bowl that he had broken when he had heard about Matsuda losing Light.

"Ryuzaki, don't you think you're going too far? I mean, you also suspect that Mizuki is Kira, yet you do nothing to stop her," Soichiro said with a concerned look on his face. Ryuzaki directed his attention to him and looked at6 him long and hard, trying to find something to say. Going too far? He closed his eyes and tried to think. Maybe it was a good idea to tell them the truth now, especially when Light wasn't around. He made sure that everyone was present. Matsuda had just arrived, looking apologetically at Ryuzaki as he entered.

"Now that Light isn't present, I feel I can tell you this information, but hear me out, I kept it to myself because it was in her best interest," Ryuzaki said with a serious look upon his face. The whole investigation team seemed to be taken aback a bit, but they didn't say anything. They were going to listen to him and spare their anger for not being told for later. He nodded as in to thank them.

"Mizuki Oshiro is an alias, one of many that she has used, her real name is Nariko Yoshikawa," he began explaining. "I don't suspect her to be Kira at all since I found out her real name and her history. She grew up in Hokkaido with her three brothers and her father, who were all criminals, mainly dealing with robbery and car theft. However, all of them died unexpectedly of heart attacks after Kira first appeared," he said, looking down in thought. The whole investigation team seemed to be astonished to hear this about her.

"But maybe she killed her own family to throw us off track! I mean, Kira is a cold blooded killer!" Soichiro said angrily.

"Indeed, that might be the case," Ryuzaki replied in a dull tone which lacked interest in what Soichiro said.

"You just want to believe that she's innocent, don't you?" Matsuda's accusing sentence surprised Ryuzaki.

"What are you talking about Matsuda?" Ryuzaki asked, trying his best to be calm.

"You're more sensitive about her than anything else," Matsuda replied, knowing that he might be going a bit far.

"Well that-" Ryuzaki didn't even get to finish his sentence.

"That makes him human Matsuda, we all get that way about someone," Soichiro said. Ryuzaki looked at him confused. He didn't treat her any differently than anyone else. Of course he wanted to protect her; it was natural for people to want to protect someone they saw as frail. He took a deep breath and shook it off. Now was not the time to focus on her. They had to focus on getting Light.

"Soichiro, I want you to go to yourhome, just in case he goes there," Ryuzaki commanded, even though he was sure that Light was clever enough to avoid going home.

_Your move, Light. _

_

* * *

_

Finally. He got away from them. Matsuda was easy enough to fool; he just had to say that he was going to the bathroom. Matsuda didn't even follow him into the room; he just stood outside of it. Even though it dismayed him, Light had managed to get out of the window in the bathroom. It took him only seconds to get lost in the big crowds on the sidewalks. He needed to find a place where he could get computer access.

He had been wandering around the area for roughly an hour. He had already gotten himself new clothes with the cash he had on himself, but it left him with little cash to use to survive. He was pretty sure that Matsuda would have notified Ryuzaki and the rest of the investigation team about his disappearance. If he knew Ryuzaki he would have already conducted a plan to capture him. If he was worried about him getting to a computer, he would most likely make sure that his access to computers would somehow be restricted.

_All I need access to is records of Momiji Yoshikawa._

He told himself, thinking hard. If he had no computer he would have TV. However anything that had been on TV regarding Momiji Yoshikawa would take far too long for him to find and it was a waste of time. He wouldn't find anything about Momiji in books. He grunted in frustration as he walked past a shop. He stopped and looked into the window. He could hear his stomach growl.

Casually he walked into the store and searched for something to eat. He grabbed a simple sandwich and went to the cashier. His eyes kept wandering around the room, searching for something that fit his interest. Nothing. Everyone was boring and normal. "Here you go, and have a nice day," the cashier said, giving him his change back. He mumbled a thank you and began to walk out of the store but something caught his eye before he could exit the store. He smiled to himself as he picked up a newspaper and read the title of one article.

_Kira strikes again!_

He would've gone the library to look at newpaper articles but he was sure that Ryuzaki would realize that he could go there. Even though Ryuzaki was a worthy opponent, in these kind of scenarios he was sure to be as predictable as every other person. He was going to have to hide away until he could think of a way to get information on Momiji Yoshikawa. He was going to get her, whoever she was, out of his way. Besides Ryuzaki, she was his biggest threat.


	16. Reunion

Light had been wasting nearly two days in thinking of how he was going to get to know something about her without Ryuzaki suspecting that he would go there. Everywhere he went he would hear a rumor that Ryuzaki was coming to a break regarding the Kira case. He would chuckle when he walked past police men and every place that he was sure of that Ryuzaki would have secured. He had been desperately trying to find a place that Ryuzaki would never suspect him to be. The last place they both would think of him going to.

That was the problem. The last place he would go to. How was he supposed to know where he would go last? Would it be his house after a day, or would it be a fast food restaurant? Not that he would be able to do anything at a fast food restaurant. Of course he wouldn't go back to the hotel room, but that was because they were in it. Then it hit him. They would never expect that he would go back to the hotel, and he still had the hotel key to her room. He had a feeling that her computer had a wireless internet connection. She must have done quite a bit of research online to be able to narrow down her own search for Kira.

Then he realized he would also be able to use the computer in the lobby, they were free and for all guests, as long as they had a key they were able to use the computers. He smirked in thought. But it would be so much more frustrating if he went into her room and got the computer. Ryuzaki would go mad if he were to kill her right under his nose. All he had to do was get to the hotel. Thankfully he had been walking around in circles and he wasn't too far away from the hotel.

It was a rough ten minutes walk.

* * *

One day, twelve hours and twenty seven minutes spent with a man who drove like a maniac. She wasn't one to complain about speed, but he drove way over the highly illegal speed. Luckily things were starting to look better. They were in Tokyo and he finally seemed to drive at a legal speed. She had had to endure thirty two hours and three minutes of the Kira broadcast until she finally told him that she had a headache- which to her surprise, worked.

"So where in Tokyo are you going?" Aki asked, looking at her with a gleam in his eye which she could easily recognize as the wonder of being in a new place. She smiled softly and started trying her best to give him directions, but things progressed slowly. "Aki? Can I borrow your cell phone again?" she asked trying her best to look innocent. Aki nodded, looking at her and smiling. "Sure, but under one condition," he said. She looked at him questionably.

"You will have dinner with me while I'm still in Tokyo," he said with a serious expression on his face. She looked away, embarrassed. "Sure," she said, agreeing. She knew that their dinner date wouldn't be a comfortable one, but she owed him for driving her all the way to Tokyo from Ichinomiya on such short notice, and in such a short time. He handed her his cell phone. She looked at it carefully before she dialed the number she knew by heart.

_Once._

"Nariko?" an answer after the first ring.

"Ryuzaki, we're in Tokyo," she replied quickly. She didn't want to waste any time.

"Where?" his voice was calm, monotone.

"About a twenty minute walk away from the bakery where I went with Light," she said. She was pretty sure that Ryuzaki would know about that location. "Which puts me about thirty minute walk away from the hotel," she added after a bit of thought.

"Go to the bakery," he commanded her calmly.

"Alright," she wasn't going to disobey him. She hung up quickly and hung up the phone. She passed it to Aki.

"Stop as soon as you can, I need to get out," she asked quietly. Aki looked at her with a raised brow. She looked down. "I have to go meet Ryuzaki, but I promise, I will follow up on the dinner date," she promised him. He nodded, despite not looking happy. It took him about ten minutes to find a place to stop, and sadly the place was about thirty minutes away from the bakery. They sat for a moment, in silence, in the car. She took off her belt and leaned over to give Aki a hug.

"Thank you so much," she murmured as she let him go. "Could you give me your number?" she asked with a small smile on her face. "Of course," Aki said searching for a pen in his car. Ten minutes passed and he found one in the glove compartment. He quickly scribbled his number onto her arm. She said a quick goodbye and hurried out of the car. She wasn't going to be late to meet Ryuzaki.

It took her twenty six minutes to get to the bakery. She wasn't able to run as much as she wanted because her body was still recovering from her collapse that happened almost two days ago. She hadn't gotten proper rest like the doctor advised, and she had left without even speaking to him. She was panting when she arrived at the bakery. She tried to calm herself down as she took deep breaths. She was starting to get dizzy.

"You need to sit down," her heart stopped for a second when she heard the familiar voice. She looked away from the ground, only to see recognizable hunched figure. She wanted to smile but she was too focused on her breathing. He grabbed her upper arm and cautiously led her into the bakery. He brought her to a seat. "What do you want?" he asked, hoping that she would be able to speak. He wouldn't admit it, but he wanted to hear her voice in person again. He had never felt so strangely attached to something so trivial.

"I'll have water and some bread," she said with a nod. "With cheese, the bread should have cheese," she said, closing her eyes. She usually loved having sweets at the bakery, but somehow she couldn't even get herself to think of them. She at least needed some real food. Ryuzaki nodded and left her side for a while. She watched as he stood in line, standing in a manner which stood out like a sore thumb. She let out a small laugh when she noticed how people looked at him. Everything about him was strange for someone who hadn't spent at least a little time with him. The hunched figure, the posture and his big eye which seemed to been awake for countless hours.

"I got some cake too, you should probably consume some sugar too," he said putting down a plate with a whole cake on it. He handed her the water and the bread. It was exactly like she had asked for it. She watched as he sat down in his usual, odd, manner. For the first ten minutes the two of them sat there, eating and drinking in silence. She was busy regaining her strength and he was just observing her.

"What is the time and date?" she asked before taking a sip of her water. He was able to tell her both without any thought at all. She closed her eyes and thought of what time it had been when she had left the hotel. She quickly went through the days, the hours and the minutes. She was surprised by the amazingly low amount of time she had left to the date she expected to be the day of her death.

"I've got roughly four days, nine hours and six minutes," she said looking at her fingers after she had used them for simple calculations. Ryuzaki looked at her in thought. "But you only said if you didn't call before that time that-," she cut him off.

"But I left my screen counting down to when I suspected I would die, and it was open, so if Light were to, I don't know, plan my death somehow he would likely chose that exact time," she whispered in thought. "I would do that just for pleasure, it would be so ironic," she said, shrugging her shoulder. Ryuzaki had an astonished look on his face. He never would have thought about leaving such a thing to possibly distract Kira and buy him some time. Well, he probably would have if he had thought about it. "But I guess you guys are keeping a good eye on Light, right?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.

"That idiot LOST him," Ryuzaki said loudly, almost as if he was losing it. He seemed to be angry. She couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. She had trusted that Ryuzaki would be able to capture Light with her plan. She sighed. Her plan hadn't been that good at all. "I'm sorry Nariko; I had promised myself that I would protect you, but…" Ryuzaki looked at her quietly. _He's so out of character sometimes._ She thought to herself. "I never asked you to protect me, I never asked anyone to protect me," she said, looking Ryuzaki straight into the eyes. "I know how to handle myself, and I've got nothing to lose," she said with a steadfast look on her face.

She was clever. She had a master plan to trap Light. She had been sure that he would end up looking in her room if he was Kira, and she was sure that he would find her violin case. Ryuzaki stared at her blankly as she slowly ate the cake. He had managed to convince her to eat it. He watched as she looked back at him with stunning green eyes. He couldn't recall being this fascinated of someone. He couldn't recall wanting to call someone something other than their name.

He had never wanted to call anyone beautiful.

She had everything he liked. She was clever. She was a talented violin player. She had been able to keep herself clean while her whole family was in crime. She was also one of the few people he really felt were beautiful. He mentally scolded himself. He didn't need to obsess over her because she had conducted a great plan within the limits of her own hotel room.

"THE HOTEL ROOM," he said loudly, realizing his fatal mistake. He had forgotten about her hotel room. She looked at him questionably. He could feel an aching pain going through his chest. He pulled out his cell phone. "Watari, check out the monitor for Nariko's room," he commanded. She looked at him angrily. He had bugged her room.

"Ryuzaki, he's in there, by the laptop,"

* * *

**A/n:** I know how way strange it is making him forget about her hotel room, but as you guys noticed, he's more and more out of character, and he will be getting worse. Well, most characters go a bit out of character but oh well. XD Word is actually being a douche and not letting me edit anything (I know the problem, just haven't fixed it yet) but luckily I had an update ready. :D Anyways, enjoy.


	17. Give and Receive

He was finally in her room. He walked straight to her laptop. The countdown was still on. He grinned as he wrote down the time. **Four days, nine hours and one minute.** He minimized the countdown timer window and opened the internet. He did a quick search on "Momiji Yoshikawa". It returned roughly six results that he found worthwhile. Four of them were about his long history of felony; one was regarding the death of him, his two brothers and his father. Then he hit what he was looking for.

_Magical duo._

_Nariko and Momiji Yoshikawa are two extraordinary musicians. The two recently held a concert where they charmed guests. Momiji is a talented piano player and Nariko is considered to be one of Hokkaido's best aspiring violin players. When asked about their future they both answered that they planned to keep playing together and hopefully hold more concerts. _

Nariko Yoshikawa. He smiled to himself. Thunder. The meaning of her name seemed to fit. He had killed off her brothers and her father and she snapped and went to track him down. He shook his head and searched for a picture of her, just in case. Soon enough he found it. She was a couple of years younger than when he last saw her. She had beautifully green eyes and her black hair was tied back. If she wasn't one of his biggest threats, he would've considered pursuing her if he had known about her many talents and the beauty that she possessed. He took out a piece of paper he had taken from the Death Note and carefully wrote down her name and set her time of death as exactly four days, nine hours and one minute away, not realizing that he had spent some of the time.

He looked around and remembered that the room was bugged. He sighed. They had four days to prove that he was Kira. If they had him on video they would most likely be able to prove that he really was Kira and it was game over for him. He hated knowing that he was going to lose the game. But he was at least able to take something away from Ryuzaki. He was sure that Ryuzaki was attached to her and didn't want to let her go.

"You're being watched," Ryuk's voice sounded through the room. He had almost completely forgotten about Ryuk. He looked at him. "I know, but it's worth it," he murmured in a low tone. Ryuk let out a hiccupping laugh. "Are you trying to ruin Ryuzaki by taking away the girl?" Ryuk asked, not quite understanding how that would work out. Light nodded. "By taking away the one person he seems to actually care about I will have won in a certain way, I will have taken something away which he would never be able to get back,"

"We've finally caught you," Light looked at the entrance of the hotel room, shocked. He saw Matsuda, Mogi and his father standing there, all looking at him with a threatening look upon their faces. "Caught me? But I haven't done anything; I was just looking through her apartment to see if she was in fact Kira," he said, even though he knew that he wasn't going to get away with it. Mogi walked over to him and put him in cuffs. Light grinned. He knew what he was going to do. Even though he was guilty he always had the option of giving up the Death Note, whenever he wanted, and he would be able to appear innocent.

Or go insane. He purposely dropped the note onto the floor as Mogi was leading him out of the room. "We're taking you to a cell," Matsuda announced angrily.

"I'm giving up the Death Note Ryuk," Light said out loud in a steadfast manner. He was going to make them regret putting him in jail.

* * *

They arrived a few minutes late. She rummaged her pocket for the hotel room key until she found it in her left hand pocket. She opened the door and looked around. The room was pretty much the same except for the fact that the violin she had left on the bed was gone and the laptop wasn't showing the countdown. She walked towards the laptop and picked it up. She was taken aback to see that it was open on a picture of her on her nineteenth birthday. She sighed. It was hard to believe that two years ago she had so little worries and now she was set to die.

"You're really beautiful," she could hear Ryuzaki saying from behind. She knew that he was standing right behind her. His character had changed from the first time she had met him. When she first remebered seeing him he was judt a hunched figure with tired looking eyes. He seemed lifeless and incapable of saying such things. She felt a little chuckle inside of her. It was funny how peoplen changed. She looked at the picture again. She hated it.

"_Nariko, smile," Momiji commanded her with a happy smile._

"_I don't want to," she said, crossing her arms._

"_What's the problem?" Aki asked, putting his arm around Nariko. _

"_She won't smile," Momiji said, throwing his arms up in the air._

"_Come on Nariko, you should smile, you're really beautiful," Aki said, ruffling her hair._

For a moment she felt like Ryuzaki left her side. She turned around to see him bend down and pick up a piece of paper. He looked at it for a good ten minutes, making her fear the worst. Before she was able to approach him he had gone around the room searching for something. "What are you looking for?" she asked him curiously. He looked at her. His expression was anxious and a bit sad. "A pen," he said in a low tone. She looked around before spotting one at the side of the bed. She bent down and picked it up. "Here you go," she said handing it to him. He grabbed it quickly.

"He needs a name and a face," he murmured to himself as he wrote something down onto the paper. She walked towards him. "Ryuzaki?" she asked as she came closer to him. "Kira will die as soon as he gets the chance to," he said as he let go of the pen and paper. She picked up the paper that he had held in his hand. She saw her name and saw a time. According to it she had four days, eight hours and fourteen minutes left. She turned the paper around and saw two names, one of which said the exact same time of death that she had, and the other only had a cause of death.

**L Lawliet.**

**Light Yagami. **

"Why did you write yourself?!" she asked, turning and looking at him. "What if Light wrote my name?" he asked raising a brow. There was a slight difference in the handwriting, so she didn't get what he was meaning what if LIght had written his name. "Would that have made you feel any better? Would you be able to forgive yourself if you were the reason that I would die? Because you didn't think that he would go up to my room and find out my real name? Would you want to live after that?" Ryuzaki asked, calm and collected. _So that's what he meant. _She shook her head slowly. She wouldn't have forgiven herself.

He grabbed her sweater as if he knew what she was thinking. Her stomach fluttered and she felt like she was safe, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. Even though he was possibly the smartest man she had ever met, she had never seen anyone as bad with people as he was. She stood up on her toes and lightly pressed her lips against his.

She felt it. The magic that everyone was talking about. The magic that you're supposedly supposed to feel when you kiss your destined one. "I would want to die with you if I would be in that situation," she said.

Ryuzaki stared blankly at the wall for a moment. What was he supposed to do know? He was a brilliant detective, but when it came to catering to his feelings and working his magic on someone he was just as clueless as a child. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to think of what he was going to do. They stood there, for maybe a few minutes. He had taken away the only piece of life she had left, leaving her with only four days, eight hours and six minutes. He was going to make them the best four days she had ever had. He owed her that much. She was the reason why he was able to feel this way before he died. She had helped him in solving the Kira case, even if she had just been some sort of... bait for Kira. She had given him his first kiss. She had done so much for him and not asked for anything in return. He closed his eyes.

Four days, eight hours and three minutes.

He could hear screaming outside.

"Did he just jump in front of that car?" he could hear someone shout. He could feel as Nariko reached out and took the piece of paper that was sitting on a table. She pulled away from the embrace as she tore of the bit with Light's name. "When we die, they'll have proof that it was him all along," she said, sticking the piece of paper with Light's name into her pocket. He nodded.

She really did deserve the best four days of her life.

* * *

**A/n:** can you guys believe it? this is the final chapter of Beyond the Hourglass. :D Thanks for all the comments and support, and sorry if this is a terrible ending. I have been debating with myself whether I should post a sequel. It would center around their last four days and only be a few chapters. More like little random chapters, not all too long... But I'm not sure really ^^ but thank you for reading. :D


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